Welcome to the fourm. I don't know what to tell you though. The only thing i can say is when they make that argument, 'My book is over 2000 years old' say, "Well I guess in 2000 years we're going to have to worship Hobbits and elves."

Now the mischievous side of me would advise filling the person's school bag with spaghetti and declaring it to be a sign...but I wouldn't want you getting into any trouble, so I won't recommend that at all.

Sadly, as you go along in life you will meet many others of the same ilk. Not only religious people, but people from all walks of life who tend to have their mind set on a single viewpoint, and neither you nor anyone else will be able to change that viewpoint.

You, on the other hand, can hold your head up in pride and say, â€œI donâ€™t know if that is true, but Iâ€™m willing to find out.â€

Sorry to hear about your assault. I have never understood this mentality. It doesn't make sense why a religious group based on the idea of love and peace seems to have the highest population of intolerant people, willing to send you to damnation, when there own holy scripture tells them not too. Even if you look at war like religions, such as the Asatru ( newage term for the old norse ways) they did not push there beliefs on the people they conquered. Yeah, over time the belief was adopted but that sort of thing happens over time, it doesn't take it being force fed to a people. I was christian at one point in time. Then again, I was also the kid in communion class asking why the devil was called the morning star, and in Revelation Jesus calls himself that name.

High school was a female dog for me, I was the long haired creepy kid that was gonna blow the school up, got even worse after Columbine. Can't even count how many time some moron yelled something stupid like "Marilyn Manson rock dude" in the worst guteral/surfer voice ever. Mind you I have always hated Marilyn Manson. It was quite annoying.

The most I can say is keep your head up, realize that you have an open mind and that is something to be proud of, in this world it is uncomon and should be admired. Find people more like you that you can tolerate and trust and surround yourself with those people. They will help get you through.

Fergus: The Pirate King of the Gold Coast

Everyone makes sacrifices, mine just happen to be to the Dark Lord of the Underworld. -Random T-Shirt

When I was in elementary school it was hard to make friends because I was an Atheist. Everyone's like, 'OhhhOhhh ur goin 2 h-e-l-l bcus u don b-lieve!' Those people were eveywhere. The only people that respected me were teachers. Stupid ninja-lovin' sea dogs.

Okay. I understand what you mean.
Left on my own...I'm not sure what I would believe. Though never told God didn't exist, when I asked if there were angels I recieved no response (as opposed to effusions of YES when inquiring about Santa or the Easter Bunny...which of course cast a shadow on the holiday spirits). I wouldn't call it "indoctrination" though.

Auntie Dee Dee wrote:... suggest to these so-called Christians that they actually READ their Bibles and note the lack of hatred and violence preached there.

Actually, the Bible has a bit of everything, especially if you include both parts. There's some poetry, some mythology, some history, some fiction... and quite a lot of god telling the Israelites to go out and massacre this tribe or that and take their land. Consider David & Goliath, or Solomon killing I-forget-how-many-people with the jawbone of an ass. A well-versed Bible-thumper can "prove" anything he likes by appropriate quotes. My favorite christians are the ones who take the love and charity passages to heart. My least favorite are the ones who prefer the exclusionary and intolerant passages to heart. The Bible has plenty of both.

Auntie Dee Dee wrote:No, it's saying that the intellectual processes to make a definitive statement are of necessity not fully matured at that time. I want to know WHY he considered himself an athiest at that age, and was it a learned thing, an introjected value, a sought out though process, whatever.

Children are perfectly capable of being scared and indoctrinated in numerous ways, but they don't, at a very early age, develop the though processes and the terminology to be athiests without interference from an outside source, just as they don't intuitively become Deists, or Christians or Buddists or followers of the Great Arklseizure, or any other intellectually constructed belief system.

I respectfully disagree. The term "atheist" means a person who believes there is no god. While a child's reasoning may not be as sophisticated as an adult's, nor his beliefs as well-founded, nor his capacity to articulate them as powerful; a child may have his beliefs as well as an adult.

My mother tells me that at the age of five I spontaneously announced that there is no god and no Santa Claus. I didn't yet know the word "atheist," but the word accurately describes my belief system at the time, and since. My contemporaries told me there was a god, who was everywhere, and knew everything, and could do anything. I decided that nobody could be everywhere all at the same time. My friends replied that god was a spirit. I replied that there's no such thing as spirits.

You may very well find fault with my reasoning at the age of 5. But I believed that there was no god, and by definition this means that I was an atheist. Incidentally, Diego Rivera also claims to have been an atheist at the age of five, though he is not always a reliable source of information about himself.

I remember nothing of age 5 specifically, but here's what I know about myself:

I have never believed in any god (apart from the FSM, of course!).

My parents are atheists, but I never recall having any sort of religious discussion with them at any point in my life until recently, which is when I consider my beliefs to already have been well-formulated.

I have been exposed to plenty of religion and religious influences, including people trying to convert me.